1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cell controller for controlling a manufacturing cell, and a production system for managing the working situation of a plurality of manufacturing machines in the manufacturing cell.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a machine factory, a manufacturing cell, for example, a manufacturing line is constructed by a plurality of manufacturing machines, such as machine tools or robots. When such a manufacturing cell is used to manufacture products, reduction in the operation rate of the manufacturing machines reduces the volume of production of the products. Thus, when a problem occurs in any of the manufacturing machines in the manufacturing cell, an operator needs to determine the source in the manufacturing machine in order to recover the manufacturing machine as soon as possible. However, when the operator is not an expert, it takes a significant amount of time to find an appropriate way to cope with the problem, and accordingly, the recovery of the manufacturing machine is delayed.
Japanese Patent No. 2934026 discloses a production system, which identifies an abnormal manufacturing machine while referencing operation data of each manufacturing machine, which deduces a method to cope with the abnormal manufacturing machine, and which performs an automatic correction based on the inference.
Japanese Patent No. 4873267 discloses a production system, which analyzes the previous condition of a manufacturing machine, when the manufacturing machine stops, in order to classify the same into a plurality of types and which displays information for identifying the condition of the manufacturing machine on a screen in accordance with each type.
Japanese Patent No. 5436460 discloses a production system provided with a teaching unit which automatically teaches an error recovery operation for a robot being in an error state based on an operation history of teaching the robot as a manufacturing machine, and a library unit for storing the content of the error recovery operation.
However, the production system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2934026 does not have a function for storing, as data, the method to cope with an abnormality arising in the manufacturing machine, and updating the same. Thus, in the production system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2934026, even when an abnormality, which is similar to the past abnormality, arises in the manufacturing machine, the method to cope with the abnormality should be deduced again.
The production system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4873267 only informs an operator of information for specifying the state of the manufacturing machine being at a stop, and does not have a function for storing and outputting the content of an error recovery operation performed for a trouble of the manufacturing machine being at a stop. Thus, when the operator is difficult to find out a method to cope with the informed state of the manufacturing machine, the recovery of the manufacturing machine is delayed.
The production system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5436460 is prepared for an environment having no interference from an operator, and does not have a function for informing, when an error state arises in the manufacturing machine, the operator of the content of an error recovery operation most appropriate to the error state. Thus, in the production system disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5436460, the recovery of the manufacturing machine is delayed in some cases, in a task for which an operator is needed.